Newbie Here

Hello people!

So I've been using a DE razor for a while now, and after much thinking finally decided to cross the pond and start using a straight razor. In the past I've been intimidated by the complexity of the selections involved and all the maintenance required; not only do you need to consider all the million different razor types with their grinds, sizes and all that, but also honing and stropping.

But I saw a straight razor and I felt this urge to claim it. It is on the expensive side for being a first razor I suppose. It is a Wacker Old Sheffield
http://wackerrazor.com/old-sheffield-razor/
but I think I can handle it; if I decide to retreat to my DE razor, I can use it to impress people and as a rather expensive piece of bathroom decoration.

Following the recommendation of virtually everyone on the web I also purchased a rather cheap strop, since it is a matter of fact that I as a newbie will mess it up in not too long. I don't think I am ready to go into honing just yet so I am going to let a local barbershop do the honing for me for about $20.

Now I do have some newbie questions, mainly relating to stropping:
What is the deal with strop paste? Do I need to apply some to both/only one of the strop surfaces?
How often do I need to do that?
Or can I skip it altogether?
Do I need to strop both before and after a shave?
Both the leather side and the other material both times?

Wish me luck! If this is my last post, it probably means I accidentally cut my eyes out during my first straight shave.

I don't straight shave, but might I just suggest safety goggles?

I have never put paste on my strops. The abrasive pastes can't be removed, and if you're not careful, will contaminate other strops. A quick hand rub or some neats foot oil is sufficient for the leather strops.

I'm still new to straights but basically pastes are to bring a dull edge back to shave ready. Stropping merely aligns the edge in between shaves. Using pastes on balsa wood or linen/leather are used when stropping no longer brings the edge back to a comfortable shave. Eventually you would have to hone the razor, but using pastes can prolong that need to hone for quite some time. Linen is used mostly to clean the blade before you move to your leather strop. I would say most folks do most of their stropping pre shave, and just linen post shave to dry the blade, but there is a lot of variation that can be done.

Pastes actually remove steel, as all abrasives do. A clean leather strop does not remove steel. The hanging leather strop does not have to present a supernatural flat and rigid surface. The normal small amount of sag allowed by a good tight pull on it, is probably beneficial and at least is not harmful. For abrasive stropping, think "honing". You are removing steel. When using abrasives, you should be working with a flat surface. For best results, anyway, and best results are the only results worth pursuing. Look for my Hpw To Use a Pasted Balsa Strop thread. I hit the balsa after shaving. Consequently, I never have to re-hone a razor. Stropping on a pasted hanging strop adds a very slight convex characteristic to the bevel and especially the apex. Works, for a while, and then you will find you have to hit the stones or the film.

We have had guys analyze the edge of a razor with different amounts of stropping with electron microscopes, and the difference is most noticeable in the first 40 laps. Beyond 60 laps, there is hardly any difference in going further. This is regular stropping, not pasted stropping I am talking about here. Some guys use the linen or felt or whatever component and then the leather, and some, like me, don't. I remove it from my strops cause it is just in the way. YMMV on that. Do it like you feel it.

Pasted balsa is no substitute for hanging leather. They do two different things. You still need to strop on hanging leather before shaving.

Old school method was to strop on CrOx or other pastes when the edge was fading. My way does not allow it to fade in the first place.

Hello and welcome. Great to have you here on b&B. Plenty of good advice above. Enjoy your straight journey.